James Wade's sudden-death thriller with John Part one of the bestb duels of 2011

BORING, boring darts. It will never be a proper sport. Let's have more dressage and figure skating.

BORING, boring darts. It will never be a proper sport. Let's have more dressage and figure skating.

On the other hand, James Wade's sudden-death thriller against John Part will go down as one of the most breathtaking duels of 2011.

And when three-time world champion Part blinked first, Wade's golden shot for a place in the last four landed so late it almost arrived in 2012.

In a classic worthy of the final itself, the deciding set rivalled Federer and Nadal slugging it out in the dark at Wimbledon, Davis and Taylor's black ball finish at the Crucible, Coe and Ovett coming down the stretch.

After 1hr 52min of see-saw drama, Wade - who was in the Priory 12 months ago, suffering from depression and a nervous breakdown - came through the ultimate test of rectum and sphincter, only to chastise himself and claim: "I'm annoyed I made such heavy weather of it."

Sorry, old son, but a sell-out 2,500 audience at Ally Pally and Sky Sports' transfixed viewers are all glad it went the distance.

Wade, probably the best player never to win the world title, had surged into a 3-1 lead, only for Part to reel off three sets in a row, and the Machine pulled out of his nosedive in the nick of time to force a decider.

Wade pulled off a 124 checkout on the bullseye to go 3-2 up, only to miss two darts for the match (on double 12 and double six) in the sixth leg.

Then, when Part broke to go 4-3 up and throw for the match, it took a brilliant 108 from Wade, 28, to save his skin and force sudden death.

And so it all came down to darts' equivalent of a penalty shoot-out, where Wade took out 85 in two darts - treble 15, double top - to deliver the knockout blow.

Wade dissolved into an uncontrollable jig of excitement, admitting: "Sure, it was dramatic, but it was also kind of annoying because I should never have put myself through the wringer like that in the first place. e that in the "Before the game I said I wanted a scrap, a match to stretch me, and that's exactly what I got.

"Of course, I'm over the moon that I came through it, but at 3-1 up it should have been game over and I don't quite know what happened there.

"Maybe I found it easier than I expected and took my foot off the gas, which is never a good idea against a player of John's quality, and soon I found myself in trouble.

"One thing I like about John is that he played it absolutely straight in the sudden death set - a few players would have resorted to mind games and, even though I'm strong enough to cope with gamesmanship now if my head is right, I respect John for that."

Canadian Part, gracious in defeat, said: "That was the greatest match I've ever lost, the kind of match I live to play."

Colchester MP Bob Russell was at the Palace earlier this week to lobby for darts as an Olympic sport, but he's whistling in the dark.

Athletes like Wade and Part don't deserve to be bracketed with synchronised swimming and beach volleyball.